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Ching Shih
' Ching Shih' (1775–1844) (simplified Chinese: 郑氏; traditional Chinese: 鄭氏; pinyin: Zhèng Shì; Cantonese: Jihng Sih; "widow of Zheng"), also known as Cheng I Sao (simplified Chinese: 郑一嫂; traditional Chinese: 鄭一嫂; pinyin: Zhèng Yī Sǎo; Cantonese: Jihng Yāt Sóu; "wife of Zheng Yi"), was a prominent in middle Qing China, who terrorized the China Sea in the early 19th century. She commanded over 300 junks manned by 20,000 to 40,000 pirates another estimate has Cheng's fleet at 1,800 and crew at about 80,000— men, women, and even children. She challenged the of the time, such as the British, Portuguese and the Qing dynasty. Undefeated, she would become one of China and Asia's strongest pirates, and one of world history's most powerful pirates. She was also one of the few captains to retire from piracy. She is featured in numerous books, novels, video games and films. Marriage to Zheng He Zheng He belonged to a family of successful pirates who traced their criminal origins back to the mid-seventeenth century. Following his marriage to Ching Shih, “who participated fully in her husband’s piracy,” Zheng Yi used military assertion and his reputation to gather a coalition of competing Cantonese pirate fleets into an alliance. By 1804, this coalition was a formidable force, and one of the most powerful pirate fleets in all of China; by this time they were known as the Red Flag Fleet. Ascension to Leadership On November 16, 1807, Zheng Yi died in Vietnam. Ching Shih immediately began maneuvering her way into his leadership position. She started to cultivate personal relationships to get rivals to recognize her status and solidify her authority. In order to stop her rivals before open conflict erupted, she sought the support of the most powerful members of her husband’s family: his nephew Cheng Pao-yang and his cousin’s son Cheng Ch’i. Then she drew on the coalition formed by her husband by building upon some of the fleet captains’ existing loyalties to her husband and making herself essential to the remaining captains. Since Ching Shih would have such a large force at her command, she knew she needed someone to assist her in managing the Red Flag Fleet’s day to day operations, but remain loyal to her and be accepted by the low-level pirates. She believed there was only one man for the job, and that was Chang Pao. Relationship with Chang Pao Chang Pao (simplified pinyin, traditional Wade–Giles: Cheung Po Tsai) was the son of a fisherman and had been impressed into piracy via homosexual liaison at age 15, when he was captured by Zheng Yi. Pao rose rapidly through the ranks and was eventually adopted by Zheng Yi. As soon as Ching Shih chose Pao, she acted quickly to solidify the partnership with one of a more intimate kind. The two became lovers within weeks and eventually married. The Code Now that she held the fleet’s leadership position, Ching Shih started on the task of uniting the fleet by issuing a code of laws (The Neumann translation of The History of Pirates Who Infested the China Sea claims that it was Chang Pao that issued the code. Yuan Yung-lun says that Chang Pao issued his own code of three regulations, called''san-t’iao'', for his own fleet, but these are not known to exist in a written form). The code was very strict and according to Richard Glasspoole, strictly enforced. First, anyone giving their own orders (ones that did not come down from Ching Shih) or disobeying those of a superior were beheaded on the spot. Second, no one was to steal from the public fund or any villagers that supplied the pirates. Third, all goods taken as booty had to be presented for group inspection. The booty was registered by a purser and then distributed by the fleet leader. The original seizer received twenty percent and the rest was placed into the public fund. Fourth, actual money was turned over to the squadron leader, who only gave a small amount back to the seizer, so the rest could be used to purchase supplies for unsuccessful ships. According to Philip Maughan, the punishment for a first-time offense of withholding booty was severe whipping of the back. Large amounts of withheld treasure or subsequent offenses carried the death penalty. Ching Shih’s code had special rules for female captives. Standard practice was to release women, but J.L. Turner witnessed differently. Usually the pirates made their most beautiful captives their concubines or wives. If a pirate took a wife he had to be faithful to her. The ugliest were released and any remaining were ransomed. Pirates that raped female captives were put to death, but if it was consensual sex, the pirate was decapitated and the woman thrown overboard with leg weights. Violations of other parts of the code were punished with flogging, clapping in irons, or quartering. Deserters or those that went AWOL had their ears chopped off, and then were paraded around their squadron. Glasspoole concluded that the code “gave rise to a force that was intrepid in attack, desperate in defense, and unyielding even when outnumbered.” Career The fleet under her command established hegemony over many coastal villages, in some cases even imposing levies and taxes on settlements. According to Robert Antony, Ching Shih "robbed towns, markets, and villages, from Macau to Canton." In 1806 a British officer reported on the terrible fate of those who resisted Ching Shih's pirates. The pirates had nailed an enemy's feet to the deck and then beaten him senseless. Contemporary reports from the British admiralty called her “The Terror of the South China" The Chinese navy lost sixty-three ships in the attacks. The Red Flag Fleet under Ching Shih's rule could not be defeated — not by Chinese officials, not by the Portuguese navy, and not by the British. Finding it hopeless to defeat her, in 1810, amnesty was offered to all pirates, and Ching Shih took advantage of it. She ended her career that year, accepting an amnesty offer from the Chinese government. She kept her loot, and opened a gambling house. She died in 1844, at the age of 69. Cultural references A semi-fictionalized account of Ching Shih's life appeared in Jorge Luis Borges's short story "The Widow Ching, Lady Pirate" (part of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Universal_History_of_Infamy A Universal History of Infamy], first edited in 1954), where she is described as "a lady pirate who operated in Asian waters, all the way from the Yellow Sea to the rivers of the Annam coast", and who, after surrendering to the imperial forces, is pardoned and allowed to live the rest of her life as an opium smuggler. Borges acknowledged the 1932 book [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_History_of_Piracy&action=edit&redlink=1 The History of Piracy], by Philip Gosse (grandson of the naturalist Philip Henry Gosse), as the source of the tale. In 2003, Ermanno Olmi made a film, [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Singing_Behind_Screens&action=edit&redlink=1 Singing Behind Screens], loosely based on Borges's retelling, though rights problems prevented the Argentine writer from appearing in the credits. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterlife_(manga) Afterlife], a 2006 OEL graphic novel, depicts Ching Shih as a guardian who fights demons to protect the denizens of the underworld. In The Wake of the Lorelei Lee, book eight of L.A. Meyer's Bloody Jack series, Jacky is captured by Cheng Shih and so impresses her that the pirate bestows her with a tattoo of a dragon on the back of her neck to indicate she is under Shih's protection. In 2007, in the third film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Ching Shih was portrayed as the powerful pirate Mistress Ching pirate empires Category:Bad Asses Category:Awesomes Category:Queens Category:Heartthrobs Category:Vigiliantes